| List Niedzielny - 06/09/02 |
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Our Lady of Ostrabrama Church 696 North Main St. Brockton, MA 02301 web site: www.ourladyostrabrama.org
His Eminence Bernard Cardinal Law Archbishop of Boston 2121 Commonwealth Avenue Brighton, MA 02135 Date: June 9, 2002 Heart of Jesus, Formed by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary, Have mercy on us. Your Eminence, Today is the second Sunday of June, the month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, as we parishioners of Our Lady of Ostrabrama Church gathered again, for the 23-th time already, at the closed door of our church to pray for its reopening. Is it just a coincidence or is not, that the sex-scandal erupted in January 2002, right after the closing of our church, which is the 51-th church closed in the Archdiocese of Boston. Nevertheless, we parishioners, who witnessed the process of the closing of our church, see the connection between these two painful events. We had a chance to get to know closer the leaders of the American Church and it opened our eyes. We were negatively surprised by the attitude demonstrated by the church leaders towards us parishioners. Now we know that the sex-scandal is only a part of the bigger problem, which is the moral corruption of the American Church. Here are the examples: Our Cardinal, who doesn’t care why the churches are empty as long as the money still flows. Bishop, who doesn’t give parishioners a chance to rebuild their church; who is always on vacation or too busy to speak with the people, and who doesn’t care if people loose their faith. A Vicar, who is determined to close the church, conspires with the altar boys and their families against parishioners, who want the church to be open, by skillfully manipulating their religious feelings. It is the high time for the Bishops to realize the true cause of the Church crisis and to invite Jesus to their conference in Texas to sit with them and to help them admit to their negligence of God’s Law and to help them reconcile with God’s people and the whole Church. The Sacred Heart of Jesus, bruised for our offences but patient and most merciful, open the hardened hearts of your priests and fill them with your light and wisdom. The Sacred Heart of Jesus, make our hearts like unto Thine.
Faithful parishioners Our Lady of Ostrabrama Church Cc: Holy Father, John Paul II His Excellency Gabriel Montalvo His Excellency Wilton D. Gregory His Excellency Walter J. Edyvean His Excellency Richard J. Malone a/a
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| List Niedzielny - 06/16/02 |
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Our Lady of Ostrabrama Church 696 North Main St. Brockton, MA 02301 web site: www.ourladyostrabrama.org
His Eminence Bernard Cardinal Law Archbishop of Boston 2121 Commonwealth Avenue Brighton, MA 02135 Date: June 16, 2002 O God, come to our aid, O Lord, make haste to help us. Your Eminence, Today is the third Sunday of June, the month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, as we parishioners of Our Lady of Ostrabrama Church gather again, for the 24-th time already, at the closed door of our church to pray for its reopening. Up to now, none of our numerous letters and petitions has been answered neither by you or any of your counterparts. The people of this parish have been completely ignored by the Church leaders, but we are sure that God hears us, because He is the one who cares about His abandoned sheep. Today is the glorious day, day of the canonization of Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, another great Saint of our times. We thank God for Padre Pio and pray through his intercession for the numerous and true vocations for the Holy Priesthood and Celibacy for the Glory of God and His Most Pure Sacred Heart. Today’s Gospel is still actual: "The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few". Therefore we ask God to "send out laborers for His harvest". O God, give us priests like Padre Pio! We parishioners of this church are the abundant sheep, but we are only a small sample of people from many closed churches in America in general, and in Archdiocese of Boston in particular. We believe that most of the closed churches followed the same pattern; first they were neglected for many years by bishops (old parish-priests were not given any help), then young parishioners started to leave, and as a consequence the church failed to be a profitable institution for the Archdiocese, and they closed the church, sold the property, and chase away the remaining parishioners. It is so sad that the bishops treat churches like their businesses, and they give priority to money and profitability over salvation of souls. Padre Pio, the true God’s Priest should become a reminder and a model for all priests today. He took his vocation seriously and he lived according to God’s Will, who said: "Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons. Without cost you have received, without cost you are to give." Padre Pio words, " I feel a great desire to abandon myself with greater trust to the Divine Mercy and to place my hope in God alone", are close to the hearts of parishioners of this church, as we too put all our trust in Jesus. Faithful parishioners Our Lady of Ostrabrama Church Cc: Holy Father, John Paul II His Excellency Gabriel Montalvo His Excellency Wilton D. Gregory His Excellency Walter J. Edyvean His Excellency Richard J. Malone a/a
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| List Niedzielny - 06/23/02 |
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Our Lady of Ostrabrama Church 696 North Main St. Brockton, MA 02301 web site: www.ourladyostrabrama.org
His Eminence Bernard Cardinal Law Archbishop of Boston 2121 Commonwealth Avenue Brighton, MA 02135 Date: June 23, 2002 "Sing to the LORD, praise the LORD, for He has rescued the life of the poor from the power of the wicked." Prophet Jeremiah Your Eminence, Today is the fourth Sunday of June, month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, as we parishioners of Our Lady of Ostrabrama Church gather for the 25-th time at the closed door of our church to pray to Lord Jesus our Savior for salvation of our church. We cry to God, but not as the prophet Jeremiah did, when he asked God to punish his persecutors and those who deride God. We ask God to change the hearts of those who closed this beautiful church and pursue its final destruction. In our opinion, expressed so many times already, whoever closes the church to sell it, prefers money over God, and there is no justification for such an ungodly act. Especially in our case, when the closing was unnecessary because there were enough people to support the church and assigning a new priest was just a matter of good will of the Church Authorities. But there was no good will in hearts of the local bishops and priests, which is not surprising considering what is going on in the Catholic Church of America today, where so many priests of God has been possessed by the evil spirit and they act as the good news of Jesus Christ they proclaim means nothing to them. We hear about incidents of burning churches. Those are the acts of hate and discrimination towards people of different faith. Closing churches is a similar act of discrimination towards poor and small ethnic communities like ours. People who destroy churches in any way do not have fear of God. Your Eminence, for greater fear of God for you and all your priests, and for greater respect for the people we pray to the Sacred Heart of Jesus today. We are still waiting for your decision to reopen our church. Praying and waiting with unshaken trust in Jesus and Mary, Our Lady of Ostrabrama Church Cc: Holy Father, John Paul II His Excellency Gabriel Montalvo His Excellency Wilton D. Gregory His Excellency Walter J. Edyvean His Excellency Richard J. Malone a/a
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| List Niedzielny - 06/30/02 |
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Our Lady of Ostrabrama Church 696 North Main St. Brockton, MA 02301 web site: www.ourladyostrabrama.org
His Eminence Bernard Cardinal Law Archbishop of Boston 2121 Commonwealth Avenue Brighton, MA 02135 Date: June 30, 2002 "Forever I will sing the goodness of the LORD." Psalms Your Eminence, Today is the last Sunday of June, month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, as we parishioners of Our Lady of Ostrabrama Church gather for the 26-th time since closing of our church to pray to Jesus and Our Lady for salvation of our church. We come here believing that one day our beautiful small church will serve Polish community and all of the people in Brockton area like in the past, and even better. We parishioners love our church not only because our fathers built it, but also because it is the house of God and Our Lady from Ostra Brama. Her miraculous image resides in the main altar of this church and watches over it and over all Her children. She is our Mother and we cannot abandon Her. She is the Mother of Mercy. Today we came to pray to the Sacred Heart of Jesus for the peace of the world and especially for America to remain ONE NATION UNDER GOD. We pray that America fully embrace God and His Law in all its institutions (schools, broadcasting media, courts, businesses, and homes). May rays of God’s Mercy penetrate the hearts and lives of all Citizens of this Great Country but such severely wounded by sin and immorality. The damage done by sin is so severe that it infiltrated even into the Catholic Church causing recently that unimaginable sex-scandal. We believe that nothing happens without a reason, and if something bad happens it is the result of sin and turning away from God. In today’s Gospel Jesus reminds us to love him more than anybody and anything on this world and to make Him a center of our lives. Your Eminence, we feel that now more than ever it is the time to come back to God and His ways of Faith, Hope, and Love. It is not a time to close churches, but rather to build new ones and re-open the closed ones. It is not a time to close the church door for people who want to return to Him. It is not the time to demonstrate the power but rather to ask for forgiveness. Now is the time of Mercy. The door of every church should be open inviting those poor, lost, rejected, neglected, and forgotten. May God bless America! May the Mercy of His Sacred Heart be with all of us. Our Lady of Ostrabrama Church Cc: Holy Father, John Paul II His Excellency Gabriel Montalvo His Excellency Wilton D. Gregory His Excellency Walter J. Edyvean His Excellency Richard J. Malone a/a
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| List Niedzielny - 07/07/02 |
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Our Lady of Ostrabrama Church 696 North Main St. Brockton, MA 02301 web site: www.ourladyostrabrama.org His Eminence Bernard Cardinal Law Archbishop of Boston 2121 Commonwealth Avenue Brighton, MA 02135 Date; July 7, 2002
"Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest ".
Your Eminence,
Today is the beautiful Sunday of July, as we parishioners of Our Lady of Ostrabrama Church gather for the 27-th time since closing of our church to pray to Jesus and Our Lady for salvation of our church.
When we practice our faith we often see it as a duty and obligation, a kind of giving thanks to God for what he has already given us. We know that God has been good to us, and so we look to acknowledge him. We keep our thoughts on the goal of eternal life and go about our daily business. But there are benefits to living a life of faith. Besides feeling good about doing what you know is the right thing, recent studies show that people who pray tend to have lower blood pressure, a better attitude about life, have less stress, and better overall health. Not surprising, because if we live life as God intended, using our minds and bodies for good, things will work better.
The Creator knew His business! By faith we learn it too.
Your Eminence, when you celebrate the Holy Mass you have to think what you do for all parishioners. We hope you will find it somewhere in your heart and soul to reverse your decision of closing our church.
Our Lady of Ostrabrama Church Cc: Holy Father, John Paul II His Excellency Gabriel Montalvo His Excellency Wilton D. Gregory His Excellency Walter J. Edyvean
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| List Niedzielny - 07/14/02 |
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Our Lady of Ostrabrama Church 696 North Main St. Brockton, MA 02301 web site: www.ourladyostrabrama.org His Eminence Bernard Cardinal Law Archbishop of Boston 2121 Commonwealth Avenue Brighton, MA 02135 Date; July 14, 2002
"The seed that falls on good ground will yield a fruitful harvest." Your Eminence,
Today is the second Sunday of July, and we parishioners of Our Lady of Ostrabrama Church come again to the steps of our closed church to pray to Merciful Jesus for its salvation. We are coming here every Sunday since January 1, 2002 to protest the church closing and to pray for its re-opening. In the meantime you Cardinal and your people are doing your job aimed at destruction of our church.
No matter how you try to justify it, the closing of churches is a wicked and shameful thing. Observing it closer one may easily loose ones faith. It is against what church preaches and what church should be all about. – spreading the word of God, drawing people closer to God be setting a good example of faith and sacrifice, finally showing mercy towards sinners, embracing with open arms those who would like to come back to God. Unfortunately, we parishioners of this church experienced something totally opposite – indifference, greed for money and earthy goods, lack of mercy, and "pay and obey" type of attitude. We believe that closing our church, as well as other ethnic churches in Brockton (according to the plan of Archdiocese of Boston) is not a good idea, which will bring terrible consequences. You cannot force people of different ethnic background to pray in English. People are free, especially here in America. God gave us Free Spirit and He understands all the languages.
What is happening now in the Church, looks like the Word cannot reach the rich soil of faith, because to many thorns of earthly temptations chocked the Word in priest’s hearts. Today we pray that all God’s Words yield a fruitful harvest, especially those Words which fall on the souls of priests.
Faithful parishioners Our Lady of Ostrabrama Church Cc: Holy Father, John Paul II His Excellency Gabriel Montalvo His Excellency Wilton D. Gregory His Excellency Walter J. Edyvean His Excellency Richard J. Malone a/a
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| List Niedzielny - 07/21/02 |
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Our Lady of Ostrabrama Church 696 North Main St. Brockton, MA 02301 web site: www.ourladyostrabrama.org His Eminence Bernard Cardinal Law Archbishop of Boston 2121 Commonwealth Avenue Brighton, MA 02135 Date; July 21, 2002
"You, O LORD, are a God merciful and gracious, Slow to anger, abounding in kindness and fidelity." Psalms Your Eminence,
Today is the third Sunday of July, the middle of the beautiful summer time of the A.D.2002. As you know, we parishioners of Our Lady of Ostrabrama Church in Brockton keep coming back every Sunday (since January 1, 2002) to the steps of our closed church to pray for its reopening.
The recent couple weeks have been especially heart breaking for us, because the icon of Mary, Mother of Mercy, was ripped of the main altar and now is "decorating" the back door of the neighboring Church of St. Edward’s. De spite everything what happened to our church, we are grateful to Father Flavin, Pastor of St. Edward’s who did his best to help us spiritually and agreed to take and save for us the most precious symbols of our faith – two large statues of Jesus and Mary from two side altars of our church, and Our Lady of Ostrabrama icon from the main altar. We thank God and Father Flavin!
When we came to pray last Sunday, we noticed the " NO TRESPASSING, KEEP OUT" sign placed on the church door. Well, this is very ironic, because we parishioners still feel this is our church, and those who are robbing and destroying it now are the true trespassers. Did they put this sign to worn themselves??? They better come to their senses soon because they do a really bad job for God and for His people. Those who close and destroy churches aim in destroying souls and faith. How people can continue believing in God, when they see so many bad and discouraging things done by those who represent God on this earth. But God’s Mercy allows those bad things to happen for a reason we don’t understand, and at the same time God’s Mercy gives us strength to continue and grow in our faith. Good seed and weeds grow together until the Harvest.
Jesus, the Generous Sower and the Great Master of the Field of Your World, have mercy on us. Mary, Mother of Mercy, pray for us. Faithful parishioners Our Lady of Ostrabrama Church Cc: Holy Father, John Paul II His Excellency Gabriel Montalvo His Excellency Wilton D. Gregory His Excellency Walter J. Edyvean His Excellency Richard J. Malone a/a
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| List Niedzielny - 07/28/02 |
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Our Lady of Ostrabrama Church 696 North Main St. Brockton, MA 02301 web site: www.ourladyostrabrama.org His Eminence Bernard Cardinal Law Archbishop of Boston 2121 Commonwealth Avenue Brighton, MA 02135
Date; July 28, 2002
"The revelation of your words sheds light, giving understanding to the simple." Psalms Your Eminence,
Today is the fourth Sunday of July, and we parishioners of Our Lady of Ostrabrama Church in Brockton come again to the steps of our church to pray for its reopening. We pray for the same wisdom king Salomon asked God and received as a special gift. We ask God to help us distinguish right from wrong in every aspect of our life. We pray for the gift of understanding heart for other people, especially those who hold power, and whose actions and decisions affect lives of thousands of ordinary people. We pray for you, Cardinal, so you come to understand how much your decision of closing our church hurt the parishioners, and how much suffering it caused.
We have seen you this week how you enjoyed to be surrounded by the crowds of young people during the celebrations of the World Youth Day in Toronto, and how they applauded your speech about "giving a second chance". Yes, our religion is all about forgiveness and giving the second chances many times to our offenders. But, unfortunately those young Catholics did not know about the many cases when you did not give people a second chance, when you closed the churches for poor parishioners who wanted to come back to God and rebuilt their faith. The Holy Father, who did not punish you for your wrong judgment and involvement in the sexual scandal of your priests, gave you a second chance. We parishioners of Our Lady of Ostrabrama are still waiting for our chance….
Jesus, give us the wisdom and the strength now, when the battle between Good and evil seems to be shifting to the evil’s favor. May your Mercy protect us from the wrong judgments and may your Providence guard our faith . Faithful parishioners
Our Lady of Ostrabrama Church Cc: Holy Father, John Paul II His Excellency Gabriel Montalvo His Excellency Wilton D. Gregory His Excellency Walter J. Edyvean His Excellency Richard J. Malone a/a
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| List Niedzielny - 08/04/02 |
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Our Lady of Ostrabrama Church 696 North Main St. Brockton, MA 02301 web site: www.ourladyostrabrama.org His Eminence Bernard Cardinal Law Archbishop of Boston 2121 Commonwealth Avenue Brighton, MA 02135 Date; August 4, 2002
"One does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God." Your Eminence,
Today is the first Sunday of August, as we parishioners of Our Lady of Ostrabrama Church in Brockton come again to the steps of our closed church to pray for it’s reopening. We are not large crowds, like those from today’s Gospel, but like them we are thirsty and hungry for the word of God, for the truth and justice, for the forgiveness and love. We are very tired, very discouraged, and spiritually exhausted by the closing of our church, but we do not want to leave Jesus. "Go to other churches!" that’s what we have heard from our Bishop. But we want to stay with Jesus at this deserted place. Although no priests are speaking to us when we come here, we believe that we here God’s voice in our hearts, which calls us to come here every Sunday and to pray for His Mercy for this little church, for His Holy Church, for ourselves, and for the whole world.
Today we repeat after Saint Paul: "I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, (…) will be able to separate us form the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." We pray for our faith to be strong despite anything that happens around us. We believe that God sees us, hears our prayers, and that our prayers will be answered one day. We, like the crowds from the Gospel, would like to be surprised by the miracle of the multiplication, but not the bread and fish. This time we wait for the miraculous multiplication of churches and crowds of faithful in them in America. Faithful parishioners Our Lady of Ostrabrama Church
Cc: Holy Father, John Paul II His Excellency Gabriel Montalvo His Excellency Wilton D. Gregory His Excellency Walter J. Edyvean His Excellency Richard J. Malone a/a
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| List Niedzielny - 08/11/02 |
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Our Lady of Ostrabrama Church 696 North Main St. Brockton, MA 02301 web site: www.ourladyostrabrama.org
Your Eminence,
As we came today, on the second Sunday of August 2002, to the steps of our closed church to pray for it’s reopening, we were unpleasantly surprised by what we saw. Our beautiful old trees and bushes decorating the frontage of our church have been cut down. These trees were so precious to us parishioners and especially to our deceased Pastor, Father John Missa, who took such a good care of them for so many years…
This week on Thursday, August 15, we will celebrate another great feast of Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, Her glorious Assumption. For us, people of Polish background, this date is very memorable and important, because many times in our history exactly on that day Mary miraculously intervened and protected our nation from enemies. The most recent example is our victory over Soviet army invaded Poland in 1920. Solidarity movement, which freed Europe from communist oppression, emerged also in August (1980).
We Catholics have many reasons to believe in Mary’s protection and intercession. Therefore, today we pray to Her for help not only for our church, but also for other churches in America threatened with closure and destruction.
Mary, Queen of Heaven, protect your Church from the forces of evil. Faithful parishioners Our Lady of Ostrabrama Church
Cc: Holy Father, John Paul IIHis Excellency Gabriel Montalvo His Excellency Wilton D. Gregory His Excellency Walter J. Edyvean His Excellency Richard J. Malone a/a
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| List Niedzielny - 08/18/02 |
| List Niedzielny - 08/25/02 |
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Our Lady of Ostrabrama Church 696 North Main St. Brockton, MA 02301 web site: www.ourladyostrabrama.org
Your Eminence,
Today is the last Sunday of August, and we parishioners of Our Lady of Ostrabarama Church come as usually to the steps of our closed church to pray for it’s reopening. Despite the hopeless situation, despite all the signs of destruction going on inside and outside the church, despite the evil powers working against us, we still have hope that one day this church will be a church again, filled with crowds of people praising God for His Mercy.
Today’s Gospel reminds us about the power God granted to Simon Peter when He made him the Head of the His Church. Peter was a corner stone on which our Lord created the strong foundations of His Church. Lord promised Peter that the powers of death should not prevail against His Church. These words are our hope and our strength.
But with power comes also a great responsibility to do everything possible to help Jesus to build His Church and bring all the people to Him. Peter fulfilled his mission. His successors also did their best to continue God’s Work. We give thanks to God for their hard work, sacrifices, and holiness. We are especially grateful to God for our present Pope, John Paul II, who is the greatest pope ever. He is a Living Miracle of our times, a sign from God, the Gift of His Mercy to the world. Last week our thoughts and prayers were with our Pope when he visited his Homeland –Poland. He was happy to be in his country, but we know how much he suffers knowing what is going on in the Church today.
Therefore, we pray to God through intercession of Mary, the Queen of Heaven, for our church in Brockton and for the whole Church, that Her powerful hand would stop the destruction of Her Son’s Church and bring evildoers to repentance and reparation of damages. Faithful parishioners Our Lady of Ostrabrama Church
Cc: Holy Father, John Paul IIHis Excellency Gabriel Montalvo His Excellency Wilton D. Gregory His Excellency Walter J. Edyvean His Excellency Richard J. Malone a/a
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| List Niedzielny - 09/08/02 |
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Our Lady of Ostrabrama Church 696 North Main St. Brockton, MA 02301 web site: www.ourladyostrabrama.org
Your Eminence,
Today is the second Sunday of September, and we parishioners of Our Lady of Ostrabrama Church come again (as we do every Sunday since January 1, 2002) to our closed church to pray for it’s reopening. We are praying, hoping, and waiting for the sign of your good will towards our church and us parishioners. It is never too late to do good… It is never too late to come back to God…
Next week America together with the whole Civilized World will observe the first anniversary of the tragic events of September 11, 2001. It was a shock and a great wake-up-call for the world, which almost forgot that the evil still exists. But the evil not only existed, but was planning its evil actions and succeeded so far. The same evil in the form of a sexual scandal touched the Catholic Church and caused an irreversible damage. Most of the Catholics believe that the sexual scandal is only a small part of the bigger problem – a moral crisis of the Church.
We are convinced that closing more churches is not a solution to the numerous problems of the Church, as well as killing innocent people in the Twin Towers was not a solution to dip social and economic problems of the Middle East or other parts of the world. Killing more people will not bring justice and peace to the troubled world. Closing more churches will not fill the remaining ones with faithful parishioners. What everyone needs is to come back to God and begin to obey the Ten Commandments, which are in fact only Two - love God and love your neighbor as yourself. This is the true solution to all problems of this world. Let us open our hearts and put all our trust in Jesus.
Today, September 8, is the Birthday of Blessed Virgin Mary. For us, parishioners of Her church, this feast is an occasion to turn to Her again in our prayers. Therefore today we ask Our Blessed Mother for intercession in our matter, in the matters of the Church, and those of the whole world. Immaculate Virgin and Mother of Mercy, who crushed the head of the Serpent, save us from the power of evil and prepare your children for the coming of the Kingdom of your Son. Faithful parishioners Our Lady of Ostrabrama Church
Cc: Holy Father, John Paul IIHis Excellency Gabriel Montalvo His Excellency Wilton D. Gregory His Excellency Walter J. Edyvean His Excellency Richard J. Malone a/a
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